"[1] The book is written as if by an actual experienced assassin, as a how-to manual on contract killing; however, in 1998 the Washington Post reported that the author was really a divorced mother-of-two who simply fabricated much of the material based on mystery novels and movies.

[4] The book was found by police searching the home of Lucio Estrada, a man who was later convicted in the murder-for-hire of Los Gatos, California businessman Mark Achilli.

[7] The families of Mildred Horn, her son Trevor, and his nurse Janice Saunders sued, claiming Paladin Press "aided and abetted" the murder.

In November 1997, a U.S. appeals court ruled 3–0 that Hit Man was not protected by the free speech/free press clause of the First Amendment and thus Paladin Enterprises could be held liable for a triple murder committed by one of its readers.

[10] Under this settlement, Paladin's insurance policy paid several million dollars to the families of those killed by the murderer, while also agreeing to destroy the remaining 700 copies of the book in their possession and surrendering any rights they had to publish and reproduce the work.

On August 6, 2000, a television film by Fox and the FX Cable Network titled Deliberate Intent was aired in the U.S. based directly on the book and the case.

By proving that the hired killer followed 22 of the 26 steps shown in Paladin's book, they're able to bring home the point that freedom of speech laws should not protect material that is produced for the purpose of aiding and abetting murder.